Dr Alison George, of the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) GP team, criticised the decision not to ‘protect staff health’.

She was responding to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) guidance that the age at which people are offered an NHS Covid vaccine should rise from 75 to 80 in autumn 2027.

Reducing vaccination

Dr George said: “Reducing vaccination to such a small group gives the impression to the public that we do not need to worry about Covid any more and that it can only harm the very oldest and most vulnerable in society.

“This is not the case at all and will do nothing to encourage members of the public to protect themselves and those around them from a disease that is spread easily.

“From an NHS staff member perspective it just confirms that DHSC and NHSE leaders have zero interest in protecting staff health.”

Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP co-lead, spoke to the BMJ about the guidance.

Vulnerable and marginalised

He said: “This issue with a raised age group again gives the wrong impression of the failure of the NHS to care for the vulnerable and marginalised.

“It also means some NHS staff will feel that their health doesn’t matter. This feels like cost cutting rather than genuine choice over health benefits and certainly affects staff at risk.

“As DAUK has said previously, it will backfire, with staff sickness and absences. This should be a choice for staff and older patients.”

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Covid booster

Covid vaccine boosters are not being offered to NHS healthcare workers this winter. Dr Alison George, DAUK GP committee member, said it’s a policy that places staff and patients at unnecessary risk. “It shouldn’t take a petition to prick the collective consciences of NHS England, the Department for Health, and the UK Health Security Agency,” she said. “But here we are. “There is clear evidence Covid is still causing significant acute and chronic health problems. “We know protecting NHS staff reduces nosocomial infections and staff sickness.

NHS staff

“This improves patient outcomes and limits treatment, operation, and procedure cancellations. “But despite this, the government has chosen to tightly restrict access to free Covid vaccines, including excluding NHS staff. “This is such a short-sighted and irresponsible decision and can’t be justified on an individual or NHS level. “Buying a vaccine privately costs around £98, which is likely to put most staff off and demonstrates appalling profiteering by companies. “As winter pressures mount, totally predictably, we see Wes Streeting and health leaders so determined not to budge that they’d rather continue with this reckless policy and the avoidable harm it is resulting in, than promptly reverse it.

Petition support

“DAUK is in full support of this petition. We urge Mr Streeting to reconsider his decision as a matter of urgency.” Sign the petition calling for all NHS healthcare workers to be offered a free Covid booster vaccine this winter. All of our committee members are volunteers. They speak to the media and campaign on the issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support their work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Irresponsible and short-sighted

The committee said: “The decision to deny healthcare workers a free Covid vaccine this year is irresponsible and extremely short-sighted. “Healthcare workers are offered flu vaccines every year because we are at high risk of exposure to flu and to spreading it, so why are we now excluded from Covid vaccination, other than to save money in the very short term? “It will lead to increased staff sickness and put healthcare workers at risk of acute and long Covid. “It will also lead to higher rates of hospital-acquired Covid, cancelled operations and procedures impacting NHS capacity – all of which is likely to make the decision more expensive in the long run.

Covid vaccination

“As Covid is surging again, some NHS trusts have brought back mask mandates, yet we are expected to pay for vaccination ourselves at some expense. “The Government’s advice on vaccination states an ‘example price’ for a Covid vaccine of £25, but the cost of a private jab is between £75 and £99. “If the cost doesn’t put healthcare workers off getting one, then companies will be profiteering from the Government’s decision. “We would be very interested to know on what advice the decision was made.” The statement has been used by Doctors.Net.UK,

Short memories

Meanwhile DAUK co-chair Dr Ellen Welch, a GP based in Cumbria, has written on the issue on the DAUK Substack. She said: “We have very short memories when it comes to the Covid pandemic. We don’t want to remember, and understandably so. “But when it comes to minimising the damage of new Covid waves, and indeed any new diseases that come along in the future, we need to look at what did make a difference and implement that within our organisations.” Read Dr Welch’s Substack post in full. DAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign about issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

GP leaders have reacted strongly to the health and social care secretary’s comments – warning they are ‘increasingly concerned’ over the government’s agenda in referring to general practice as part of the private sector.

In evidence to the House of Commons health and social care select committee this week, Mr Hancock said the success of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign was down to the amazing work of ‘private companies’, such as GPs and pharmacies.

At the 16 March session Mr Hancock said: ‘There is a false dichotomy between public and private and we have learned over the last year that arguments based on public is good, private is bad are completely wrong.

‘I want to learn from the vaccine rollout which we couldn’t have done without the amazing work of private companies. And I put at the top of the list obviously the pharmaceutical companies but also the GPs and the pharmacists who are at the core of the rollout.’

Asked whether private companies would be allowed to sit on the boards of integrated care systems (ICSs) being rolled out across the NHS under reform plans set out by the government in a recent white paper, Mr Hancock added: ‘You can’t in law say there must be no private voice if you do also want to allow for the voice of GPs, because they are private sector.’

BMA GP committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey told GPonline: ‘The characterisation of GP practices delivering the vaccine programme as private providers is a gross and deliberate misinterpretation.

‘GP practices are independent contractors, a model that the government supports and promotes, and there is a clear distinction between independent contractor organisations purely set up to deliver NHS services and who are commissioned solely by the NHS, and truly private commercial providers which are businesses set up to provide health services and which would, and do, exist with or without the NHS commissioning them.

Foundation of the NHS

‘The reason practices have been so successful in the rollout of the vaccine is because of their long history of delivering vaccination campaigns with the NHS. GP practices have been the foundation of the NHS since its inception.’

He added: ‘They are local organisations that are at the heart of their communities and know and understand the patients they serve and make decisions based on that – they are not private companies that make business decisions based on profits or other considerations outside of the best interests of their patients.’

Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) GP spokesperson Dr Ellen Welch said: ‘The health secretary’s comments that “NHS GPs are the private sector” shows a lack of understanding of the very health service he heads.

‘NHS GPs may be run as private businesses, but they differ from non-NHS private GPs in that they do not compete for patients or for profit. They work to NHS contracts, follow NHS guidelines and see NHS patients.

‘The success of the vaccine rollout is down to NHS GPs who know their patients and have worked an at accelerated pace alongside their normal work, at very short notice, to make this programme work – and all done on a shoestring, in comparisons to the millions given to private scheme such as Test and Trace.’

Read the article here

The Doctors’ Association UK welcome the drive by NHSE to encourage vaccine uptake amongst cohort 6 patients (those aged 16-64 with underlying health conditions) to ensure as many people as possible take up the COVID-19 vaccination. Local GP’s are continuing to arrange the majority of these jabs (and will continue to make contact with patients themselves), but NHSE’s text message campaign will provide patients with alternatives which may be more accessible for them, such as attending a vaccination centre or a pharmacy led service.

Dr Ellen Welch is a GP with the DAUK and says: “I have an appointment for my second vaccination today, which as a pregnant healthcare worker was important for me to have to feel protected. I would encourage everyone, especially those at increased risk, to make the most of this opportunity. To be able to return to a sense of normality, it is essential we vaccinate as many of the population possible.”

DAUK’s Dr David Nicholl says: “We have learnt this week that of healthcare workers who are vaccinated, their families had a rate of COVID-19 at least 54% lower than the families of healthcare workers who were not. We already know that the vaccine is safe, we now know that it also brings protection to our nearest and dearest. This is especially important for the clinically vulnerable in the cohort 6 group. As such the Doctors’ Association UK would encourage anyone who gets called, to get vaccinated, to get themselves and those they love protected as quickly as possible”

Batches of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine have started arriving at UK hospitals ahead of the jab’s nationwide roll-out.

Some 530,000 doses of the treatment will be available for roll-out across the UK from Monday, with vulnerable groups already identified as the priority for immunisation.

The vaccine has been developed in the UK by Oxford University and the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

The roll-out will begin after England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned vaccine shortages are likely to cause problems for “several months”.Advertisement

He said the UK urgently needs to maximise the number of people who are vaccinated, but added a lack of global supplies will likely hamper efforts to protect the nation in the first part of 2021.

Public Health England (PHE) has said it does not recommend mixing coronavirus vaccines from different suppliers amid fears over the possible shortages.

Both the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has been rolled out from December, require two doses.

The UK government had issued guidance telling NHS medics that if a person who has received their first coronavirus jab goes back for their second but the same type is not available, or the first vaccine type is unknown, then it is “reasonable” to offer a dose of another vaccine.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisations at PHE, has since told Sky News that mixing is not recommended and should only happen on “rare occasions”.

The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, which is part of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, was one of the first hospitals to take delivery of a batch of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on Saturday morning.

First doses of the vaccine will be administered next week after the UK recorded another 57,725 coronavirus cases on Saturday – its highest ever daily total. Another 445 deaths were reported.

Dr George Findlay, chief medical officer and deputy chief executive at the trust, said the vaccination programme gives NHS staff “more confidence” coming into work.

He added hundreds of people are expected to be vaccinated per day at the Princess Royal Hospital site, with efficiency expected to increase after the first few days of the programme.

Dr Findlay said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be kept at normal fridge temperature, is “much easier” to administer when compared with the jab from Pfizer and BioNTech, which needs cold storage of around minus 70C.

More than a million people have already received the first of two jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Second doses of either vaccine will now take place within 12 weeks rather than the 21 days that was initially planned with the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, following a change in guidance which aims to accelerate immunisation.

Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has raised concerns over the spacing of the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and what it calls “the lack of a coherent strategy for the current crisis”.

Dr Natalie Ashburner, vice-chair of DAUK, said: “Poor communication and lack of engagement with frontline clinicians who are implementing this vaccine programme and dealing with the NHS pressures has led us to this point.

“Moving forward we urge a rapid reassessment of the strategy as a whole with a clear plan that has had frontline clinician input, so that even if we are deviating from certain guidelines, we are doing so together and with the backing of the science.”

Dr Vinesh Patel, from the GP committee of DAUK, said: “There are a great many concerns that the change in vaccine strategy and dosing regimen has been communicated poorly and represents an attempt to stem public health failings.

“There appears to have been little to no involvement with frontline clinicians in making this decision, and subsequently chaos is ensuing…. (the change in strategy) is a huge gamble, and one made without the data to back this strategy.”

The full article can be accessed here: https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-batches-of-oxford-astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine-arrive-at-uk-hospitals-ahead-of-roll-out-12177510

“It’s very difficult to ask doctors to say to their patients, the elderly and vulnerable, sat in front of them, ‘Well, actually, we’ve chosen to delay this.’ And don’t get me wrong, GPs are desperate for this vaccination rollout to be a success. It’s the only way to get us out of the pandemic. But it has to be done with frontline clinicians aware of the evidence, with access to up to date knowledge that’s led to this decision.”

Dr Zainab Najim, DAUK

DAUK’s Vice-Chair, Dr Jenny Vaughan, spoke to LBC News about how the government has handled the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

“We want to ensure there’s an ICU bed for everyone in the country who needs it. The situation is the Government has a duty to reduce the numbers of staff going off sick, because they’re getting ill. They’re still stretched to the limit with their bed to staff ratios.”

“The direct face-to-face staff who are the most vulnerable, and those who are of black or ethnic minority origin – we know if they get COVID they’re far more likely to die from it, and so it is very important that these staff who are working face-to-face with COVID should absolutely be a top priority for the vaccine.”

Dr Jenny Vaughan, DAUK Vice-Chair

“Trust and honest planned communication is vital for a successful vaccine rollout. Without it, any vaccine programme will fail. We are therefore imploring the government to listen to primary care staff. We can tell you the potential pitfalls and their solutions, we can provide the resources needed to do this locally and, for goodness sake, vaccinate the vaccinators first.”

Read the rest of the article here.

DAUK’s Lizzie Toberty was featured in this Bloomberg article that highlighted the communication failures that risked derailing the mass vaccination in response to the pandemic.

“There’s always this underlying feeling of chaos … Our worry is that if we’re having problems delivering flu vaccines which we deliver to a limited number of people every year, then how can we be confident if we organize a Covid-19 program that the supply chain is definitely going to be there?”

The article can be found at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-25/row-over-england-flu-shots-prompts-fear-of-covid-vaccine-chaos